With scant playtime this week due to real life issues, I started the evening happy that I’d get a chance to delve again into “Naxx”, this time to best Instructor Razuvious for the weekly raid quest. I enjoy the weekly raids as they introduce me to boss fights and their complex mechanics one at a time instead of buckling in for two hours of “OH, GOD! NOW WHAT’S HAPPENING!?”.
I lazily flew to the dungeon and waited by the summoning stone while the guild organized. As usual, there wasn’t enough for 25, but this time it looked like we wouldn’t be able to pad without it becoming a guild-led pug run. The decision was made to pare it down to a 10-man run. As such, we had an overabundance of DPS and tough choices had to be made. Our Fearless Leader, Kheth, announced to us all “Don’t feel bad if you don’t get an invite.” I knew this is always a possibility, but I’d had a really rough week and silently crossed my fingers.
A moment later, I received a raid invite and I exhaled deeply. This told me that (1) I wasn’t considered completely useless and, as a corollary, (2) Kheth doesn’t read my blog. A few seconds later Kheth himself arrived in bird form and we began summoning the rest of the party to the dungeon.
Naxx is organized in four main sections and this time we ventured into the Military Quarter. This is home to a “death knight academy”, which is probably less lame than it sounds, and a number of not overly vicious skeletal undead and their steeds. After a number of encounters in the dark, dank skull-themed rooms, we stood before Razuvious and a pair of his students. We got a briefing on how this boss “works”. Although he has the usual talents of Damage Innocent Mage Way Over There and Nuke Everyone When He Damn Well Feels Like It, the main concern is that he hits melee hard—like 100k hard, but that’s ok, since the tanks wouldn’t be tanking. Instead, a couple of people would use conveniently located “control orbs” to mind control the students for a minute at a time and use them to maintain aggro control on the Instructor while the DPS fill him full of bolt-sized holes. Because Razzy is so vicious, the two ‘tanks’ would have to trade aggro back and forth while the healers keep the students alive (or at least in their current state of tortuous undeath, but why quibble?).
The go order was given and we set to our task. As I burned away my mana from a safe distance, I watched the fight unfold. Aside from the curious student mechanic, it was a fairly straightforward tank-and-spank affair. There was one dicey moment when one of our group lost control of a student for a moment, but it was quickly recovered and the Instructor was summarily dispatched. We gathered around the corpse and picked over the loot—there was nothing of any use to anyone, so my services as a disenchanter was retained to pad our guild’s coffers with abyss crystals. It was halfway through this that we realized we had forgotten about the mind controlled students. The ensuing combat was more hilarity than threat and we expelled them quickly.
Afterwards, I ran a quick daily (The Nexus), which gave me enough Triumphs to trade down three tiers of badges and buy a shiny new heirloom breastplate for Anyth. I imagine Ian (my Refer-a-Friend buddy, Mr. Rogers) will be somewhat disheartened to know Anyth will be getting –another- xp bonus, but the new gear is so much nicer I couldn’t resist.
Sorry, Ian!
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